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MIT Xprize Lab Fall 2011 Syllabus
1. EC.421/ESD.172/SP.793 - X PRIZE WORKSHOP:
ENERGY INNOVATION CHALLENGES
IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
FALL 2011 SYLLABUS
MW 11-12:30pm, MIT Room 56-162
Course Director: Georgina Campbell – georgie@alum.mit.edu – Office: MIT Entrepreneurship
Center, E40-160, m: 617.768.7626
Course Instructors: Georgina Campbell, Professor Charles Cooney, Professor Fiona Murray
Course Website: http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/ESD/fa11/ESD.172/
Course Description:
In 2004, the Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital spaceflight captured the public's imagination,
leveraging a $10M prize into over $100M in innovation. Now the X PRIZE Foundation is
developing new prizes to focus innovation around other "Grand Challenge" themes,
including genomics, energy, health care, and education. Around the world, prizes are
gathering steam as tools for public policy, as well as philanthropy and corporate innovation.
Our interdisciplinary X PRIZE course this fall challenges the world to develop revolutionary
breakthroughs in the interlinking areas of energy and the developing world. This is not a
theoretical exercise, but a real opportunity to design a $10M prize for incentivizing
energy breakthroughs in the developing world whilst adding essential tools to your
innovation toolkit. Together with industry leaders and maverick innovators, we will examine
the intersection of incentives and innovation, drawing on economic models, historic
examples, and analytic tools, and pitch your ideas to members of the X PRIZE Foundation
Board of Directors and global energy leaders at the World Bank.
Learning Objectives
After taking ESD.172, students should be able to:
• Articulate the features of incentive prizes and contexts in which they are most
effective
• Describe incentive prizes in the context of existing economic models of innovation
• Analyze effective areas for investment of limited resources
• Understand the diversity of opportunities for improvements in energy-related issues
in the developing world
• Understand the technological and systems-level blockages to energy-related
improvements in developing world
• Develop deep knowledge of a particular energy innovation issue in the developing
world through the term project
• Work effectively in teams
• Present their concepts clearly and concisely in both written and oral form
Course Format: This 9-unit course will be highly action-oriented and interactive, with a
team-based term project due at the end of the semester. Twice-weekly workshops include a
mixture of lectures and discussions with experts on innovation, incentive structures, and
opportunities for revolution in developing world energy systems.
2. Team Project: Groups of 3-5 students will work together to analyze an area relevant to
energy generation, transmission, distribution, storage and use in the developing world. The
ultimate goal here is for students to develop a fully-formed X PRIZE concept to incentivize
revolutionary energy innovation breakthroughs in the developing world.
Course instructors will work together with the teams to identify local experts as team
mentors/advisors. It is anticipated that each team will meet with their advisors a minimum
of two times during the course of the semester.
Grading: Class grades will be assigned on the basis of homework, project performance, and
class participation, as follows:
15% participation 40% project milestones
15% homework 30% final project
3. Theme/Week
Topic
Assignment Due
Incentive Prizes
Wk 1 (9/07)
Importance of Prizes in the Innovation
Toolkit
Georgina Campbell
Wk 2 (9/12)
X PRIZE introduction
Stanford Case Study,Kalil
Peter Diamandis, Founder X PRIZE (Skype)
2009
(9/14)
Prize History and Landscape
McKinsey study, Lakhani,
Georgina Campbell
Lerner 2008
Energy Challenges in the Developing World
Wk 3 (9/19)
Introduction to problem identification & Class pitches
problem solving
Georgina Campbell
Irina Sigalovsky, Gen3
(9/21)
No class- student holiday
Wk 4 (9/26)
In context: Lightning Africa
TBD reading
Kate Steel, Africa Unit, World Bank
(9/28)
In context: Clean Cooking Initiative
TBD reading
Srilata Kammila, Africa Unit, World Bank
Wk 5(10/03)
Energy Challenges in the Developing World
TBD reading
Historical Prize Summary
(10/05)
Prize analysis & design I
Term project: elevator
Irina Sigalovsky, Gen3
pitches
Wk 6 (10/10)
No class- Columbus Day
(10/12)
Innovation: A Public & Private Perspective
Team Contracts,resources,
Jen Gustatic, PhaseOne
advisors
Wk 7 (10/17)
Prize analysis & design II
G3:ID Assignment 1
Irina Sigalovsky, Gen3
(10/19)
Prize analysis & design III
G3:ID Assignment 2
Irina Sigalovsky, Gen3
Wk 8 (10/24)
Green Town Labs Tour (Sip Week)
(10/26)
Motivations for Innovation (Sip Week)
Readings TBD
Georgina Campbell
Steve Isakowitz, VP & CTO, Virgin Galactic
(date to be confirmed)
4. Wk 9 (10/31)
MID-TERM TEAM PRESENTATIONS
(11/02)
IDEO Brainstorm
Readings TBD
Jeff Chaplin, David Privitera
Wk 10 (11/07)
Communicating Innovation
Readings TBD
G. Nagesh, Director of Business
Development & Government Policy, OnGreen
(11/09)
Incentives and Innovation
Readings TBD
Professor Fiona Murray
Wk 11 (11/14)
X PRIZE critique
X PRIZE critique
Georgina Campbell
(11/16)
Matrix peer review “gaming session”
Draft prize matrix
Georgina Campbell, Erika Wagner,
Senior Director of Prize Development, X PRIZE
Wk 12 (11/21)
TEAM TIME
(11/23)
TEAM TIME
Wk 13 (11/28)
TEAM TIME
Revised prize matrix
(11/30)
Presentation dry runs
Georgina Campbell, team mentors
Wk 14 (12/05)
TEAM TIME
(12/07)
Final Presentations [ROOM/ TIME TBD]
X PRIZE Board members, senior World Bank representatives,
senior U.S. Government representatives, sponsors, course faculty,
and other special guests
Required Readings (available on Stellar, others will be added)
Boudreau, K.J., Lakhani, K.R. (2009) How to Manage Outside Innovation. MIT Sloan
Management Review. 50(4): 68-76.
Christensen, C.M. (1997) Change in the Mechanical Excavator Industry. From: The
Innovator’s Dilemma. New York: Harper Business.
Foster, R. (1986) The S-Curve: A New Forecasting Tool. From Innovation, The Attackers
Advantage. New York: Summit Books, Simon & Schuster.
Kalil, T. (2006) Prizes for Technological Innovation. Brookings Institute Discussion Paper.
http://www1.hamiltonproject.org/views/papers/200612kalil.htm
McKinsey & Company (2009) “And the Winner Is…”: Capturing the Promise of Philanthropic
Prizes.
Moore, G.A. (1999) High-Tech Marketing Illusion. From Crossing the Chasm. New York:
Harper Collins.
5. Sobel, D. (1995) Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest
Scientific Problem of His Time. New York: Walker Publishing Company.
Stanford Graduate School of Business (2006) X PRIZE Foundation: Revolution Through
Competition. Case: SI-90
Suggested Readings
Brunt L., Lerner J., Nicholas T, 2008, Inducement Prizes and Innovation, Seminar in Law,
Economics,
and Organization Research.
Christensen, C. M., Anthony, S.D., Roth E.A. (2004) Seeing What's Next: Using the Theories
of Innovation to Predict Industry Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Davis, L. (2002) Should We Consider Alternative Incentives for Basic Research? Patents vs.
Prizes. Paper for the Druid Summer Conference on Industrial Dynamics. Copenhagen,
Denmark.
Davis, L. (2004) How Effective Are Prizes as Incentives to Innovation? Evidence from Three
20th Century Contests. Paper for the Druid Summer Conference on Industrial Dynamics.
Copenhagen, Denmark.
Diamandis, P.H. (2009) Using Incentive Prizes to Drive Creativity, Innovation and
Breakthroughs. X PRIZE Foundation: Playa Vista, CA.
Horrobin, D. (1986) Glittering prizes for research support. Nature (324) p. 221.
Lakhani K., Jeppesen L, Lohse P., Panetta J., 2007, The Value of Openness in Scientific
Problem Solving [Report] : Working paper: Harvard Business School.
Morgan, J. (2009) Inducing Innovation Through Prizes. Innovations 3(4):105-117.
National Research Council (2007) Innovation Inducement Prizes at the National Science
Foundation. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.
Schrage, M. (1990) How Prizes Can Help Spur New Technology. Los Angeles Times. July 19.
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-07-19/business/fi-135_1_kremer-prize.
Scotchmer S., 2004, Innovation and Incentives. Cambridge: The MIT Press
Utterback, J.M. (1996) Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, 2nd Edition. Boston: Harvard
Business School Press.